Love, peace, joy & harmony on Earth!

Importance of the Ego

This is the translation of a fresh Facebook post from AP, a friend and instructor I know from the SHY (spiritual human yoga) courses I did some years back.

Ego

Most teachings and trends frown upon the ego, saying that it’s something we need to eliminate.

My view on this is totally different.

Well, it is not some coincidence that we were born, received our bodies and our egos developed.
The ego is something we need, without it the body could not exist, act, adjust to the world.
A strong ego helps the body to be healthy.

Just think about it! Weak people will soon start feeling sorry for themselves, sort of looking for an escape, a way out, an excuse to hide from reality and they quickly become alcoholics or begin some other self-destructive, weakening process.
Weak people are so deep in self-pity that they won’t even move, not even a little movement, but rather let their bodies deteriorate.
Weak people live in fear, scared of everything and everything new, but thus get stuck in the labyrinths of their ways.

Let’s consider the great teachers of humanity as examples. Do you think they were weak on their journeys? Even before arriving at their destinations, they needed to be strong. Faith without a strong ego is unstable, but if someone says that’s perseverance and determination, then those are also abilities and attributes of the ego.

Shamans say that this is all part of the “tonal” and we need strong “tonal”s.
Only an individual with a strong ego can in the moment of initiation transform himself, otherwise his fears hold him back.
Only a strong ego is able to step aside and give way to another part of our being, a weak one would just stick to their own reality.

A master with a weak ego will be derailed by his own students. He will give in to the pressure of society, habits and traditions, and he is already off the route of the heart, in order to follow a direction set by others’ expectations.

You should nourish the ego but it’s important in what direction!

If we develop it in the direction of the small-minded, selfish, material world, then we create a monster.
But if we proceed in the direction of the spirit, the “power”, the abstract, then we can get rid of the small-minded part of the ego.
This too requires strength, that after many failures and hopelessness we get up again and move ahead.